STEPHENS. 



STEPHENS. 



7CO 



years scarcely a month passed without some new publication, and if 

 we recollect that in most of the works he acted as editor, and corrected 

 the proofs with the most anxious care, it appears marvellous that so 

 many works could be produced in so short a time ; the mere list of 

 liis publications in Maittaire from 1527 till 1560, which is not by any 

 means complete, fills twenty large octavo pages (p. 10-30). His device 

 on the title-page of his publications was an olive tree with one or 

 more branches broken off, while new branches are engrafted on the 

 tree, and the motto was ' Noli altum sapere,' to which he sometimes 

 added ' sed time.' Until the year 1532 he used the same types as his 

 father, but in this year he used a larger and more elegant type for 

 his ' Biblia Latina,' of which he had published the first edition in 

 1528, under the title 'Biblia utriusque Testament! Latina, ex veteribus 

 MSS. exemplaribus emendata,' fol. This edition was not only in 

 appearance the finest that had ever been printed, but that he might 

 be able to give the text with the utmost correctness, he had examined 

 all the libraries of Paris, St. Germain, St. Denis, and had got over 

 from Spain at his own expense a very valuable Spanish Bible. 



In 1531 Stephens published his first great original work : 'Dictiona- 

 rium, sou Latina) Linguso Thesaurus,' fol. The second (1536) and the 

 third or last edition (1545) of this dictionary are in 2 vols. fol., and 

 contain numerous corrections and improvements by Robert Stephens. 

 The work has often been reprinted in other countries. In the year 



1539 Stephens was appointed printer to the King of France for Latin 

 and Hebrew works, and henceforth he always added on the title-page 

 of his publications, to his name, Regius Typographus, or Regius 

 Librarius, or some other similar title. Soon after this honour was 

 conferred upon him he received the same distinction for Greek works, 

 whence he calls himself sometimes ' Regius Typographus in Graecis.' 

 Stephens appears to have thought that he ought to produce his publi- 

 cations in a form worthy of his new rank, and it was on his suggestion 

 that Francis I. had new Hebrew, Greek, and Roman types made by 

 Claude Garamond. These types, which were of exquisite beauty, 

 were afterwards known under the name of Characteres RegiL In 



1540 Stephens published a new edition of the Latin Bible with various 

 readings. On its appearance the divines of the Sorbonne renewed 

 their attacks, but owing to the king's liberal protection he was enabled 

 to continue his labours unmolested. The king had such a high 

 esteem for his learned printer that he frequently visited him in his 

 office^ and on one occasion, when he found him correcting a proof 

 sheet, he stopped behind him and waited silently till Stephens had 

 finished his task before he began to converse with him. The first 

 Greek book that Stephens printed in the capacity of Regius Typo- 

 graphus in Gracis, belongs to the same year, 1540, and bears the title 

 ' fvwfutu Mov6ffTixot, sive Sentential singulis versibus contentae juxta 

 ordinem Literarum ex diversis Poetis, cum Interpret. Latina.' In 

 1543 he published a little work called ' Alphabetum Grsecum,' which 

 only contained sixteen leaves, and was afterwards frequently reprinted. 

 This is supposed to be the first book that was printed with the 

 Characteres llegii. In the following year Stephens edited, in one 

 folio volume, a collection of the most eminent Greek ecclesiastical 

 historians, under the title ' Ecclesiastica Historia Eusebii, Socrates, 

 Theodoriti, Theodori, Sozomeni, Evagrii, Greece.' This work was soon 

 followed by ' Eusebii Prseparatio Evangelica,' in Greek. These two 

 volumes contain the earliest specimens of the device subsequently 

 adopted by all royal printers : a thyrsus with an olive branch and a 

 serpent wound round it, and the motto, /3o<nA.et T' ayaOy Kparepf r' 

 cuxwlj. In 1545 he published a new edition of the Latin Bible, 

 which he had been preparing for several years. It contains notes 

 which are ascribed to Vatablus, and which are said to have been com- 

 municated to Stephens by the pupils of this theologian. But the 

 authorship of the notes is a point which even at the time appears to 

 have been the subject of much dispute. In the year following he 

 published his first Hebrew Bible, and also a new edition of the Latin 

 Bible in folio, with a preface which shows the immense pains that he 

 took to give the text as correctly as possible. 



These repeated editions of the Bible and the notes ascribed to 

 Vatablua, which were in some parts supposed to savour of the 

 reformed doctrines, to which Stephens himself was attached, involved 

 him again in disputes with the professors of the Sorboune. He offered 

 publicly to acknowledge any errors which he might have committed, 

 and to print them in an appendix to his Bible to guard the readers 

 against them. The king several times required the professors to draw 

 up a list of the errors or heresies, but they never did it Their object 

 was not to prevent the propagation of any particular errors, but to 

 get the Bible and the commentary put into the ' Catalogus Librorum 

 Prohibitorum,' and thus to stop its sale altogether. The matter was 

 constantly deferred, and all attempts to bring it to a close were fruit- 

 less. Stephens, in the meantime, regardless of the clouds which were 

 gathering over his head, continued as active as ever. In 1547 he 

 published his Editio princeps of the * Antiquitates Romame ' of Diony- 

 sius of Halicarnassus, which is still highly valued as a very beautiful 

 and correct edition. It was soon followed by the Editio princeps of 

 Dionysius of Alexandria, De Situ Orbis,' with the Greek scholia of 

 EustathiuB. 



In this year (1547) King Francis I. died, and Stephens lost his 

 greatest patron and protector. His successor, Henry II., was at first 

 favourable to Stephens, and required the divines of the Sorbonne 



speedily to produce their ' censurse,' threatening to punish them if they 

 made any further delay. The professors, who knew the vacillating 

 and weak character of the king, promised obedience ; but nothing 

 was done, and new charges were brought against Stephens, and new 

 attempts were made to suspend the sale of his Bible. At last it was 

 agreed that Stephens and the learned divines should meet at the king's 

 palace at Fontainebleau, where several bishops and cardinals likewise 

 appeared. Stephens was acquitted of the charge of having printed 

 anything that impugned the Roman Catholic faith. The divines-, thus 

 disappointed, suddenly contrived to give another turn to the matter, 

 and to get an order from the king for a temporary suspension of 

 the sale of Stephens's Bible, and for the matter to be investigated 

 afresh by a commission, whose duty it was to take cognisance of cases 

 of heresy. After eight tedious months, Stephens at last obtained from 

 the king another order that his case should be tried by the king's 

 privy council only. When Stephens had thus, for a time at least, 

 secured his tranquillity, he produced, in 1548, the Editio princeps of 

 Dion Cassius, libri xxiii., and several other works. In this year he 

 had occasion to travel to Lyon, and in this journey he is said to have 

 made the subdivision of the chapters of the Bible into verses, which 

 was subsequently adopted in nearly all editions of the Scriptures. 

 King Henry II. happened to be at Lyon, and when Stephens, availing 

 himself of the opportunity, presented himself before the king, and at 

 the same time thanked Cardinal de Guise for the services he had done 

 him, Stephens was informed, to his utter astonishment, that a change 

 had taken place in the king's mind, in which he could not mistake the 

 secret and intriguing workings of his adversaries : the sale of hia 

 Bibles was prohibited. Stephens, indignant at such proceedings, 

 declared that he would leave his country ; but the king requested him 

 to retain his office of royal printer, and promised that the matter 

 complained of (the censurae) should be speedily produced. 



Stephens was persuaded to remain ; but, owing to the king's vacil- 

 lation, he was still subjected to various disappointments and vexations. 

 Some of his biographers state that in this year he visited Zurich and 

 Geneva ; and if this be true, he perhaps undertook this journey with 

 a feeling that it would soon be necessary for him to seek a refuge in a 

 foreign, country. In 1550 he published his beautiful edition of the 

 Greek Testament, with a ' nova translatio Latina.' Stephens presented 

 this work to bishop Du Chastel, who had hitherto pretended to be his 

 friend, but who now courted the favour of the Sorbonne, and declared 

 that every sort of protection which he had formerly given to Stephens 

 had arisen from his not knowing the real character of his offences. 

 Hereupon the Sorbonne again began to annoy Stephens; and after a 

 tedious and ludicrous trial, held by men who found fault with the 

 various readings in the margin of Stephens's Bible, which they took to 

 be an heretical commentary, he was forbidden to sell his impressions 

 of the Bible, and commanded to promise that he would print no more 

 copies of the Scriptures without the sanction of those learned divines. 



Stephens was now convinced that no reliance could be placed either 

 on the king, his counsellors, or the great prelates, and that he must be 

 prepared for the worst. He however made preparations for a step 

 which his enemies did not expect. He finished the numerous works 

 which were at the time going through the press, and at the end of 

 the year 1551, or at the beginning of 1552, he escaped with his family 

 to Geneva, where he hoped to find that liberty of conscience which he 

 had so long wished for. Stephens is charged by some writers with 

 having taken with him some of the materials belonging to the royal 

 printing establishment, but his biographers have shown that there 

 is not a shadow of ground for this charge. There is also a tradition, 

 which does not seem at all improbable, that the professors of the 

 Sorbonne vented their impotent rage by burning Stephens in effigy. 



Stephens began his new career at Geneva with the publication of 

 some books of the Old Testament, and of the whole of the New Testa- 

 ment in Latin and French. In 1552 he also published ' Ad Censuras 

 Theologorum Parisieusium, quibus Biblia a Roberto Stephano, typo- 

 grapho regio, excusa calumniose notarunt, eiusdem Roberti Stephani 

 respousio.' This book, which was also published in French, gives us 

 a clear insight into the nature of his disputes with the Sorboune, as 

 well as into his own character. The other works which he published 

 during a period of seven years at Geneva are almost exclusively of a 

 theological and controversial nature, consisting of works written by 

 Calvin, Beza, and other distinguished reformers. He retained his 

 former device, but under it he printed, ' Oliva Roberti Stephani.' The 

 name of Geneva seldom appears on the title-page of his books. He 

 died on the 13th of September 1559, leaving behind him, it is said, a 

 numerous offspring and considerable property. But only three of his 

 sons are known, Robert n., Henry n., Francis II., and a daughter of 

 the name of Catherine. 



There is perhaps no man in modern times to whom literature and 

 learning are more indebted than to Robert Stephens. His unbiassed 

 contemporaries not only place him on a level with the greatest scholars, 

 but declare that he excelled them all. 



CHARLES STEPHENS appears to have been about a year younger than 

 his brother Robert. His education was sound and classical ; but he 

 also applied himself to the physical sciences, and took his degree of 

 Doctor of Medicine, which he practised for some time. He wrote 

 several treatises on subjects connected with medicine, natural history, 

 and agriculture, which however are less scientific than historical, for 



